One PAP, two PAP. Red PAP, blue PAP. [abbreviations/acronyms]

[Fats Drywaller]

I'm continuing (slowly) to read back in time in various threads here that interest me, and I can see that there's a problem for newbies, potentially a big misunderstanding, caused by the ambiguity of the term "CPAP".  The correct expansion is "continuous positive airway pressure", which is fine until a discussion gets to the point at which it's necessary to distinguish between auto-titrated PAP (APAP) and constant-pressure (or fixed-pressure) PAP, at which point a lot of people assume that "continuous" means "constant" or "fixed", which it doesn't; it just means "uninterrupted".  I think what they're really after (merely from being in a hurry, from not pausing to think about it) is that "continuous" should mean "constant" or "fixed", which is futile.  That way lies more confusion.

It would sure be nice if we could all magically start using, and keep using, the term "FPAP" for fixed-pressure PAP, instead of using "CPAP" for that.  Because in posts here I've seen a number of things like "Depending on your medical diagnosis, CPAP may not be right for you; APAP might be better."  In that example, the intended meaning is obvious, given the context, but the use of "CPAP" is still wrong.  In some other contexts, "CPAP" is even more ambiguous and confusing.

APAP is also one form of continuous positive airway pressure, so it's really auto-CPAP, but it's not constant or fixed pressure.  But when the "A" isn't in the abbreviation, are we talking about constant pressure?  In some cases yes, in other cases no, depending on the writer or speaker.

What can be done?  I can and do suggest "FPAP", but what good will that do?  I'm afeared that we're stuck with the ambiguity, just by accident.  Does anyone here work for the ISO?  

[PaulaO2]

It is just terminology and you have to look at the context.

Many of us say xPAP (for whatever).

There there is BiPAP (proprietary term used by Phillips)
and Bilevel (what a BiPAP is)
But most people call all bilevels BiPAPs

There really isn't any one singular way to do it unless one is writing a paper. Don't get hung up on the language.

For further info on acronyms/abbreviations:
http://www.apneaboard.com/wiki/index.php?title=Acronyms

[SuperSleeper]

All these machines are CPAP machines, whether they're Auto-CPAP (APAP), bi-level (BiPAP, VPAP) or ASV type machines--- they're all CPAP (Continuous Positive Airway Pressure machines).

That's why when referring to what some call APAP, I personally try to call them Auto-CPAP machines instead, which seems more descriptive and less confusing.  Those are the two most popular machines newbies get (either fixed-pressure CPAP or an auto-CPAP), so newbies get less confused if we use the more descriptive "auto-CPAP" term (rather than APAP).

I personally don't like the term xPAP or even simply PAP, because the xPAP term seems to indicate a "unknown" or "variable" (the 'x') and the simple PAP leaves off a letter representing what all these machines are-- Continuous.  But since all these machines are CPAP machines, the 'x' would always be referring to "Continuous", hence CPAP in all cases.

Those here who end up with bi-level CPAP or ASVs, etc. usually have the terminology figured out (tend to be more advanced as far as their knowledge of the terminology), so members here don't feel the need to be so restrictive in their terminology when referring to those types of machines.